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In my Dirted tank project this afternoon, I calmly and deliberately added 1 angelfish to each tank, you know, the take it slow approach. Don't add too many fish, let the tank acclimate to the fish. My plan is to add another angelfish in a day or two if all goes well. Holy smokes, the first fish look fine, wouldn't hurt to add a second one to each tank. No, wait. Be patient. Slow and steady wins the race. I am the little boy in the marshmallow project. As soon as the researcher leaves the room, I eat the marshmallow. I just added a second angelfish to each tank....

So when aren't they fry anymore? I think my baby sparkling gouramis are on the verge of just being small fish 🙂.

I have found this to be kind of uncanny except the answer I seek is usually in the podcast version I’m listening to as I fall asleep and the chances of me remembering it are roughly 50/50 😐

Kribensis Dad keeping an eye out for pesky tetras

I can’t take credit here. That one my sibling found and sent to me. She’s ashamed of my puns but encourages my passions.

I have just added a juvenile angelfish to each of the 3 aquariums. This is the one in the EcoComplete tank.

Well if you don't like dragonfly larva, you will really not like this. I keep one of these in my green water aquarium: It is about 5" long. I know what it is. Any guesses?

They come in on plants. Occasionally for me they will come in with my daily Daphnia haul.

My 29 gallon sloppy scape, I just wanted a heavily planted tank lol

I think I have my first result in this project and it is that the middle tank (the dirt tank) stays a bit warmer. This has been consistent since the first day when I calibrated all three probes in the same cup using a NIST calibrated thermometer that is certified to be accurate to +/- 0.1 °F. All three tanks have the same 50 watt Aqueon heaters. I set all of the heaters to 80 °F on their local control knob. Since a 50 watt heater in a 40 gallon tank in a 69 °F room will never be able to bring the aquarium temperature to 80 °F all three heaters have run continuously and never turned off, not even once. Since the same heaters are warming the same volume of water for same amount of time, why is the middle tank warmer? I suspect that it is due to the funnily named zeroth law of thermodynamics (physicists came up with this law after they had already named the first three laws and because it was more fundamental and because they are physicist, this passes for humor). Here is are the numbers from the first few days. What say the engineers and other heat minded folks on this forum? Zeroth law? Randomness? Crappy probe calibration? Something else? Future posts will follow changes in plant growth and changes in water chemistry, just wanted to throw this out there before it slipped my mind.

I think too often when people enter these kinds of debates they fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing things like fish, meaning that we regard their ethical treatment by ascribing to the non human entity — in this case a fish — human traits. We imagine a fish to have similar desires to us—humans—in regards to their own treatment, feelings like a want for freedom from captivity, or the want to return home to the wild. Then we imagine we’re violating there ethics because similar treatment would violate our own basic desires. Personally I would imagine, and this is just a guess, that their wants probably amount to more lower level instinctual things like being safe from predation, good habitat quality, access to food, a sense of safety, the ability to mate, adequate stimulation from their surroundings. If I’m supplying that, I feel like my treatment of them is ethical. I have no way to know if I’m right, but if feels reasonable to me. In the case of captive birds, yes I could see how a cage could degrade their life in terms of their basic needs, flight. But in the same vein, I do hate seeing large fish whose body size is greater than the percentage of free tank space available to swim in. For me the important ethical considerations come down to environmental sustainability of wild caught fish. But to be honest, I don’t have enough knowledge on the subject to even discuss it. Like others in this thread have already suggested, these are just my ‘beliefs’. I have no idea if I’m right, but I use these beliefs as my own personal code of conduct. And as @Daniel suggests, yeah, I’ll agree, these beliefs were probably crafted by me simply to justify something I wanted to do prior to me having the beliefs, meaning the action came first — fishkeeping — and the ethics came second to rationalize and fit the action. Darn you Daniel, why’d ya have go and undermine my whole moral compass like that! 😀

New fish day!!! I have gotten my order from Jonahs Aquarium I normally don't post my fish in my QT tank but they are cool.I got 4 blue head chubs I got 4 rainbow 4 green sided and 4 banded darters. And I got a few extras because mark at Jonah's aquarium is awesome not my photos but these are what I got mine are still young and don't have the color yet

Fish in the wild live a more varied life, dominated mostly by eat or be eaten. So do most wild cats, cows, lizards, chickens, etc. For that matter, when you keep a houseplant you’re cutting it off from basically an interconnected plant network - fungi that connects trees and plants and bacteria and send signals to others or even nutrients. My personal take on it is that manipulating nature and our environment is one of humanity’s core adaptation tactics, for better or for worse. At this point it’s pretty impossible to separate the manipulation from the nature whether it’s natural ecosystems overpowered by invasive species, landscaped changed through human intervention and cultivation, turning trees into houses, grafting a rose or a fruit tree, or buying a fancy goldfish. It’s kind of up to the individual to define a moral compass within some of those complexities. However, in my experience, my fish are at least as smart (cichlids especially) as my mom’s chickens, and therefore I submit that pescatarians are unfairly biased.

These are my two tanks. My 20 gallon hex was just recently converted to a fully planted tank a few days ago. It houses a betta, named Creme Brulee, 9 neon tetras, an otocinclus, a guppy, two African dwarf frogs, and a ghost shrimp. They all seem to get along very well, even the shrimp that I thought I would kill immediately with the frogs or betta. I've been binge watching every video I can on aquascaping and aquariums in general. This is my first real attempt at aquatic plants. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at houseplants over this year due to the pandemic and this was my next step in the hobby since my husband said I couldn't get anymore plants since we will be moving soon (GA to the DC area) and he doesn't want to move them.I have had fish tanks since 2011 and worked at pet stores with fish for 4 years so I have the basics down but want to expand my knowledge and maybe someday have a room in my house just for my fish and plants. The 10 gallon tank is a tank I'm cycling for cherry shrimp or crystal shrimp. I have all the tests (TDS meter, Gh, Kh, freshwater master test kit) to see which species based on my water parameters. I have very soft water with a low TDS (under 100) so I'm leaning towards crystal red shrimp since they would require fewer adjustments. I'm hesitant to call it my first attempt at aquascaping but really that's what it is. Lol The plants on the right (Rotala indica) should grow nice and tall to hide the heated and filter nicely. They melted back pretty hard but the new growth I replanted makes me pretty confident that they will be just fine in a few months. I even have a crytocoryne wendtii green that completely melted and the roots seemed firm so I planted them in the tank and they seem to be regrowing new leaves as well! I'm really having some fun with it and I'm definitely getting the itch to get another tank. I'm trying to convince my husband to just let me upgrade the 20 gallon to a 75 but no luck until we move again.

So, I heard @Cory mention this concept in a video talk he gave about guppies to the Youngstown Aquarium Club. I was intrigued but could find almost no information about it. In the meantime I had guppies breeding in a 10 gallon with a matten filter in one end, and I would dip net out the fry as they showed up as fast as I could and transport them to a new tank. One day when I left the power off, 2 fry swam the wrong way down the tube and I found them happily living and growing behind the foam. then I found some photos on Instagram of a similar tank making use of this concept, and while mine is less beautiful, hopefully it will be more practically helpful. The concept is a divided tank, with adult guppies breeding in one end, with an airlift crossing a divider, and delivering fry to a separate compartment. This is a great way to use a matten filter. Here is the adult side, containing guppy parents, epiphyte plants, and adult red neocaridina shrimp (hiding in the rocks, you have to trust me): Here is the fry side, with more shrimp, and a bunch of newly planted stem plants: Here is the whole thing: Mechanics: Moms tend to hide in the plants to give birth, and newly born baby guppies naturally make a run for the rocks and plant cover, which is built around this air lift tube, available on amazon from aquaneat: Note the small holes on the intake, which admit fry but not adults. Air supplied by an airline creates lift, and draws the guppy fry up and out, where they are delivered to a predation free zone. I used the matten sponge from the 10g in this new 20g high, and made a frame out of pvc. Two things I learned as soon as I filled the tank the first time was that the matten filter and frame, while well fitted, want to float, and when a 20 high is full the glass bows just slightly, loosening the fit. I used black silicone to attach the frame to the glass. I need to clean up the edges a bit, but over all I am happy... And it works!

Hello everyone my name is Nick and I have been into the hobby for almost a year now! I’m in love with planted tanks and I’ve set up 3 so far! I have a fluval spec v with a male betta and a bunch of cherry shrimp. I have a fluval flex 15 gallon with a male German blue ram 3 male endlers and 4 otocinclus and I also have another 5 gallon tank with pea puffers and full of cherry shrimp! Thank you for checking out my tanks and I can’t wait to gain more knowledge and get more inspiration from you all!

I caught the sun lighting up this little breeding jar and felt I should share. This jar is a no-tech jar with no light other than the sunlight and no filtration other than the pothos, Java moss, susswasertang, and hornwort. They’re real hard to get a picture of as any movement spooks them, but in the second photo you can see a bit of one of the females

My name is Eliot and Im from the Northwestern US. I only have one tank right now as my apartment complex only allows 10 gallons or less, but before I moved I was working on several breeding projects and building out my first fish room. Today I have a 7.1 gallon Aquatop cube tank which is home to a black samurai betta named Alex, and an Amano shrimp named Simon.

and you'll always find the answers you seek. I've been researching mosquito larvae as a food source and hadn't found a definitive, "yes, you can grow and harvest regular old mosquitoes and give them to your fish." Then last night I was listening to and old live stream about fish foods and Cory said those magic words - I can just fill up a bucket and grow my own! The truth...is out there.

the goldfish fry are very clearly goldfish now and pretty big also have some surprise galaxy rasbora fry

Excited to announce my first batch of golden wonder killis are hatching. I received them as a surrender at the pet store I work at because another pet store sold them saying they were great in a community tank. Turns out this family was not happy with them eating everything. I put them in a tank with a spawning mop and the next day I was pleasantly surprised with eggs

Not much has changed other than adding more fish. Here is the nermal tank: Here is the dirted tank: Here is the EcoComplete tank. The more interesting changes are what is happening in the water chemistry. It will take a while to condense all the testing in to a post. I will probably dump all the testing into a blog post, and then summarize it here.

I couldn't help myself, I added a second angel to each tank.

Lol, but it’s 2020 it’s to be expected..

Hi I’m Joe, and I’m joining this forum mostly to expand my knowledge on tropical fish and plants (and maybe offer some help to other people but my knowledge isn’t the best yet). I’m 17 and I’ve had fish since I was very little but unfortunately I still don’t know a whole. I think people can relate to the whole child gets fish, doesn’t really know what they’re doing etc etc. So I guess this is where I talk about my tank, I’ve had quite a few in the past, a tiny nano tank, a 46 litre (12 gallons?), then jumped to a 120 gallon, and now I’ve found the middle with a 125 litre (I believe that’s roughly 33/34 gallons) This is also my first attempt at live plants. Currently the tank is home to: red eye tetras x5, blue king tetras x3, a gold opaline gourami, Khuli loaches x3 and a panda garra. I look forward to learning about everyone’s tanks, experiences, fish, plants etc and hopefully learning from you all.

Love the attitude. I hope you become the best, like no one ever was!

Thank you, everyone! The demon-spawn has been removed from the tank. 👹☠😱😬

Umbilical cords! I learn something new on the Forum everyday.

I'm extremely active in a church my family has helped plant in our community, and I'm an avid curler with our local curling club. I'm really into older Japanese and Scandinavian cars, and Vespas. And I love backpacking and hiking. My wife says I have too many hobbies. I just say I'm well-rounded.

If you are able to catch it, I would remove it. Aquatic nymphs can cause some issues. Just keep an eye out for more of them. No need to nuke the tank though. Since it's just a quarantine tank, just remove them. Yours looks a lot like the little monster that wiped out a good portion of my shrimp colony awhile back. After I was able to catch it, I found 3 more.

You can barely see them lol but I got some Venezuelan El Tigre N class endlers 🥰 they mean a lot to me bc im from Venezuela as well 🙂

This is baby mama! wonder what kind of colors I’ll get

that double eye movement gets me every time!!!

I feed live blackworms if I can get them. I get them a couple pounds at a time, and have not had any problems with the smell or anything. I keep mine in the fridge and rinse them off everyday under some cold water. I feed them to most of my fish, especially my corydoras cats and angels. There will be small leeches in with the blackworms, but I have not noticed any problems with them and my fish. If I wanted to, I could pick them out using a pair of tweezers. They do burrow down in substrate and I will see one poke itself out once in a while and a lucky fish has a nice little snack. I have never seen live bloodworms for sale in a LFS or anything, but I do feed frozen bloodworms frequently, along with frozen brine and daphnia.

Aging chinese ricefish.

Tested out my new thermometers. They look really good and read accurately 👍 I also learned how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. 😝

update on fishy daddy. He's being very good and made a nice bubble nest and they look like theyre all in there!

@ Mudkicker Fishkeeping ethics will rest on what your worldview is, whether there exists objective moral truths, whether there exists objective purpose, meaning, and value in the universe. I think at rock bottom this is ultimately a religious question which I beileve we are supposed to stray away from that topic in this forum. All I will say is it is of great value to know what you believe and why you believe it, and greatly important to live coherently and consistently with your beliefs.

So I agree we need some kind of ethics in fish keeping, but I don’t think the practice of fish keeping is immoral. As long as you are keeping fish in an appropriately sized tank, and provide for their unique needs for clean water, cover, swim space etc, you are giving them a far better life than in the wild. Most fish in the industry are commercially bred, not wild caught. And they bred to bring out colors and fins that would leave them vulnerable in the wild. just my opinion.

I am very cynical. I don't think fish are different from other things humans do. We do what we like and then come up with reasons on why what do is okay (or not okay). How good the reasons seem are usually correlated to whether you think the thing is okay. I keep honey bees and lot of people think that is unethical and cruel and unnatural. I don't agree with their reasons, but isn't that just what you would expect from a beekeeper? Naturally, I will think of all the reasons why I should be able to keep bees because that is what I already thought. But the anti-beekeeping people are thoughtful and reasonable people and make a coherent argument. I am not a big believer in teleology (things are made to serve an ultimate purpose), but then again, of course I wouldn't believe that, right? Humans are selfish, we do what we want, eat what we like, and if other living things suffer, we justify it somehow. One of my hobbies is botany and I love trees. But I killed almost a hundred trees to clear a space to build my house. I felt bad for about an hour and then gave the okay for loggers to cut the trees. I liked those trees, I have kept the logs even until this day. I look at them sometimes and remember the individual trees that had to die so I could have a house. I can't say any of this is ethical, it is just what we do.

Ember tetras would be amazing very small and brightly coloured and beautiful or if you wanted to spend the money Galaxy rasboras.